


A Spicy Super Bowl

by magician



Category: The Sentinel
Genre: Bingo, Challenge Response, Food, Friendship, Gen, Sentinel Bingo Card, Super Bowl
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-02
Updated: 2018-02-02
Packaged: 2019-03-12 14:57:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13549725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magician/pseuds/magician
Summary: What to serve for the Big Game.





	A Spicy Super Bowl

**Author's Note:**

> Written for The 2018 Sentinel Bingo challenge for the prompt: wings.

Simon answered the knock on his front door.  "About time you two got here," he said as he opened the door wide to allow Jim and Blair to come in.  
  
"Sorry, Simon.  Sandburg insisted on bringing some weird-ass beer and we ended up going to two places to find it." Jim said in a put-upon voice, but his smirk belied his tone.  He set down the load he was carrying, then took the box Blair held and put it on the kitchen counter.  
  
"Hey," Blair protested, giving Jim a mock scowl before turning to Simon. "Excellence is always worth the wait.  Now that we're here, the party can begin."  
  
While Jim put the beer in the refrigerator, Blair looked at the spread already laid out on the dining room table and whistled.  Various types of chips and dips courtesy of Rafe, Chex party mix made by Daryl. Megan brought five-layer nachos and Rhonda made deviled eggs.  Joel brought chili in a slow cooker with bowls of toppings around it and the pigs-in-a-blanket were from Henri. John Timmons and Terry O'Hara, the second and third shift detectives, planned to order pizza at half-time and Simon had a platter of sliders ready for the grill.  
  
Blair shook his head, bemused. "Did you know that Super Bowl Sunday is the second biggest food day of the year, right behind Thanksgiving? They estimate Americans will eat over a billion chicken wings today."  
  
"Bullshit, Sandburg, there's no way," Rafe said on his way to get another beer.  
  
"Hey, don't take my word for it--do the math.  Our population is about 279 million, right?" He looked around as other people wandered in to join the conversation. "Divide a billion wings by 279 million and you get about…" Blair looked up at the ceiling, calculating. "About three and a half wings per person.  Even if you back out kids and women, who probably eat less than the average, you're talking about maybe five wings per man."  Blair looked around.  "Are you telling me that you're not going to eat five wings apiece today?"  
  
Megan snorted.  "I don't know about these blokes, but when it comes to wings, I'm ready to eat any of them under the table."  
  
Rhonda nodded.  "Me, too, I love wings. I'm just glad that Clark is out of town. Otherwise, I'd be the one making them _and_ hosting the party.  I can't tell you how happy I was to get the invite."  She smiled at Simon.  
  
"Well, Sandburg," Simon said, "how many I eat depends on how many you brought.  I hope you have enough for everyone," he added, eyeing the large cooler Jim had carried in.  
  
"Seven dozen," Jim said as he started unloading a large bowl of partially-cooked wings, a big jar of red sauce and a couple of small Tupperware containers.    
  
"Hey, where's the bleu cheese and celery?" Simon groused.  
  
"We're not having buffalo wings," Blair replied as he pulled a large wok, cooking tools and peanut oil out of the box he'd carried in. "We're having Korean barbeque wings."  
  
"Ah, Hairboy, you're making sweet wings?" H asked.  "I was looking forward to searing my mouth on those things.  We have a bet to see who can take the most heat," he continued, cocking his thumb at Rafe.  
  
Blair gave him a 'settle down' gesture.  "Yeah, it's a little sweet, but plenty hot, too.  The sauce is made with gochujang.  It's a Korean pepper paste.  But if you want it hotter, I brought a bottle of Siracha.  Now," he continued, rolling up his sleeves, "give me some room to make the magic!"  With that, he set the wok over the gas burner, cranked up the flame and poured in some oil.    
  
When the oil was hot, Blair added some crushed garlic and ginger, then tipped in a couple of dozen wings, quickly stirring to finish cooking them.  When they were crisp and sizzling, he dumped them onto some paper towels and repeated the process.  Jim patted the wings with more paper towels to remove any excess oil, then transferred them to a large bowl.  He added some of the hot sauce and tossed them to coat.  He put them on a big platter that Simon provided and sprinkled the wings with sesame seeds and sliced scallions from the Tupperware.   By the time he was done, Blair had another batch waiting on the paper towels.  Within minutes, the platter was piled high with steaming, sticky, spicy wings, looking as appetizing as any restaurant's offering.  
  
Since the game hadn't started, the rest of the guests had meandered in to watch the show.  As Jim laid out the platter with a flourish, they all clapped in appreciation.  Jim and Blair looked at them, then at each other, and laughed.  "Okay," Jim said.  "Show's over, time for the game!"    
  
With that, he and Blair and everyone else got new drinks and settled in to munch and cheer their teams to victory.  
  
There wasn't one wing left by game's end, and several people, including Henri, quietly asked Blair for the recipe.  
  
~~the end~~

**Author's Note:**

> A couple of months ago, I was watching an America's Test Kitchen episode that included Korean BBQ wings. They looked so appetizing, I actually went out and bought some Gochujang, which is pretty tasty. So, of course, when I saw "wings" in my Bingo card, it immediately sprang to mind. I read a news article today that said Americans will eat 1.33 billion chicken wings on 2018's Super Bowl Sunday (I'm assuming that's 1.33 billion wing segments, since they're normally separated, but that's still a mind-boggling number). I estimated it would be about a billion in 1998 based on our population then. Yowza.


End file.
